Good Design Festival 2016

Receiving the Young Australian Designer of the Year Award

Wow! What an amazing weekend I had thanks to Good Design Australia. I'm absolutely thrilled and honoured to have taken out both the 'Young Australian Designer of the Year' award as well as top prize in the 'Design Entrepreneur Award'. Australia's Good Design Awards are one of the longest standing and most prestigious design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958.

I'd also like to extend a very big congratulations to all of my fellow designers and inventors who together, design a better future for our world.

As a result of winning the 'Design Entrepreneur Awards', I receive pro-bono work by business acceleration company CtechBA worth $25,000 for my Vita haemodialysis machine project. This encompasses a commercialisation strategy / plan as well as mentoring by veterans in the field of design and business. I can't express how excited I am to have this amazing opportunity.

Check out images from my weekend below!

The Good Design Australia Awards Gala night.

The beautiful dining set up for the Gala Night.

The design showroom, where I had an incredible amount of fun!

My mother and I overlooking the Sydney Opera House during the Vivid Sydney Light Festival.

Presenting my 3 minute design pitch to a live audience.

Receiving the top prize at the 'Design Entrepreneur Awards'

Awards from the weekend.

Built Environment Awards Night 2016

The University of New South Wales' Built Environment Dean; Professor Helen Lochhead and myself.

It was an absolute pleasure tonight to have been awarded the Dean's Award as well as being recognised for achieving the University Medal for Industrial Design.

Factory Visit - Huizhou, China

An amazingly skilled factory worker screen prints a one-colour print onto PVC material which will eventually become a bag.

Today I had the great pleasure of visiting a major mass production bag factory in Huizhou, China.  It was a highly educating experience where I found myself up close and personal with the production process for bags within my field (ie. amenity bags for the airline industry).

My visit began at the sample room where one-off samples are made for inspection, testing or other uses during the design process. I then visited the multiple floors where mass production occurs once a design is finalised and signed off by all involved parties.

During mass production workers have set stations where they perform one particular task within the entire bag manufacturing process. One worker may sew a particular stitch and then pass it on to the next worker who sews a different stitch. Through this specialisation process the machines used don’t need readjusting, workers become extremely fast at performing a certain task and production time is as efficient as possible. 

After all this, it was a long drive back to Hong Kong. Overall, it was an amazing day!

Factory Visit - Guangdong, China

A CNC machine cuts out a steel mould which will be used to vacuum form lids.

I had an amazing day at two plastics factories in China. Plastics run our world today and as a mass production product designer I see it as my responsibility to design sustainably and ethically. 

Seeing manufacturing in Australia and learning the theory in university is one thing but to witness it in China where so much of it happens is truly eye opening. It is almost like looking at how most of our world's products are made. For me, understanding exactly what goes on here is essential in allowing me to think of better ways to design sustainably and reduce wastage.

All geared up at the vacuum forming facility.

A long sheet of PET rolls along the processing line after being heated and formed.

Workers use a crane to move one ton of polypropylene sheet.

Model Making for Project Vita

With great models comes great mess.

Making a fully articulated appearance model for my major project was a highly challenging but equally rewarding endeavor. Check out my snapshots from my journey below!

Getting dirty in the workshop.

Accuracy is key - using a custom-made jig to drill dowel holes through MDF profiles. 

Three Up Plus 2 3D printers simultaneously printing my components. 

The body form begins to emerge from the wooden profiles.

The form of the mould begins to become distinct.

The final model.

The amazing woman behind me every step of the way!

A huge thank you to my girlfriend Jessica who supported me through this journey where many sleepless nights were had. I also cannot show enough appreciation for all of the university's workshop staff!

Cormack Awards Night

Receiving the Sustainable Design Award from the Australian Packaging Covenant's Brett Giddings.

I'm very proud to have received two awards tonight for my package dispensing mechanism - Whirl. I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Cormack Packaging for organising an amazing night of awards, entertainment and beautiful food! Cormack Packaging continues to support the development of innovation within the Australian packaging industry.